Barker Collins installs Soraluce FL-8000 column

Barker Collins of Sheffield has expanded its large-capacity CNC milling capability with the installation of a Soraluce FL-8000 travelling-column floor-type milling centre.

Barker hopes this will reinforce its position as a mainline supplier of workpieces for blue-chip customers in industry sectors such as oil and gas, power generation, earth moving, nuclear, defence, transport, minerals and mining and excavation and construction.

The new machine, supplied by Ward CNC, complements an already formidable portfolio of Asquith Butler, Correa and Marufuku CNC milling centres, as well as CNC horizontal borers from Doosan, Giddings and Lewis, Kuraki and Sacem.

All feature Renishaw RMP60 probing for workpiece identification and datuming, program selection, inspection and generation of inspection reports to integrate with the measuring routines from the DEA co-ordinate measuring machine, which has X, Y and Z axes capacities of 3000 x 1200 x 1000mm.

According to managing director Chris Carter, the Soraluce’s floor plate working surface area of 8000 x 1500mm and X, Y and Z axes of 7500 x 1400 x 1000mm, as well as a machining head capable of 1,000 degree positioning/movement, will comfortably accommodate the extra-long components such as whipstocks required by customers involved in offshore drilling.

These complement its established supply of oil-and-gas sector components such as stabilisers, cans and reamers, pipeline tooling, pumps and valves and seabed fastening systems.